Just when you think you are smart enough to use the tools, someone shows you just how far you have to go still.
Dave
Printable View
Here's my latest wish for any relief carving software.
A smart toolpath for a sanding head for automatically sanding the relief so you don't spend hours sanding by hand....
Sanding option after carving would be great. Flush sander run over what was just carved could be done!
That was actually experimented with by one of the programmers several years ago. Unfortunately, the idea was abandoned. Apparently, it's not as easy to reliably and consistently implement from project to project as one would initially think! (Ya know...little things like the wood catching fire from friction using abrasive bits.)
So far, the 3M abrasive disks and a rotary tool are still the best way to sand the crevices of detailed carvings without losing that detail!
I know this has come up before, not sure if it has been re engaged or not but the ability to do pocket cuts with the straight bits? At least in terms of inlays it would make things much easier, on the more advanced side think about how much faster it would be carve the bulk of an area on a board that didn't need fine detail with the 3/16 straight or bull nose and only use the 1/32 or 1/16 for high detail areas without having to run multiple projects on one board with 0 carve regions and possibility of things not lining up? I've been seeing people with cnc's by shopbot and instructables do the inlay portion with ease and most I've talked to said their carve times are much less when done like that. Hopefully I'm not speaking on deaf ears but if I'm beating a dead horse I apologize! Does what I'm saying make sense? Sometimes it's hard for me to portray thoughts on paper.
Oh. I understand it's difficult. Didn't say it was easy.
But I ran into some folks at the last IWF, who had a collection of really NICE relief carved moldings that had been carved AND sanded via CNC. IT's a highly proprietary patented process that it took a team of engineers several years to perfect...
But you gotta admit the first software package that can claim that it has a good sanding system will be in the catbird seat for quite a while.
It is easy to do. You just re-carve a little lower with a diamond burr. This has been discussed before. Here was one thread.
http://forum.carvewright.com/showthr...101#post187101
I would like the have a custom "draft feature" like the custom feather that was added. Sometimes small is to small and medium is too large.
I would like the features that led me to purchase the latest update would work with my updated operating system. (Yosemite)
Right, it's not a new idea...done all the time in production. You need to have control over speeds and feeds, depth of cut, etc. before it can be done practically and safely.
(Re-running an entire project on the CW with a diamond burr seems enormously inefficient. I can sand details much faster with my 3M discs and Dremel!) ;)